More than just Love
by bezoar10
Summary: Naruto is dead, and Kakashi and Sakura are both lamenting.  Sakura is drinking herself to her limit, and Kakashi is rotting slowly from the inside out.  What happens when Kakashi mistakes a plea for comfort as an invitation for something more?  Kakasaku.
1. Chapter 1

Kakashi waited until everyone was asleep. He made sure all was quiet by listening to their breathing. Genma was out. Naruto tossed and turned. All who was left was Sakura, who was determined to stay up with Kakashi so that he wouldn't be alone—for whatever reason she assumed he needed company, he couldn't even begin to guess. Maybe it was her that needed company. Nonetheless, Kakashi cleared his throat and sighed.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, looking up to her former teacher

.   
"It's…nothing." Kakashi looked up at the sky. It was so peaceful. The moon and stars shone down like guardians. Sakura gave him a sharp look, though, accompanied by a fist, and both together said very loudly, "Spill it." Kakashi sighed, amused. "I was just thinking that you shouldn't be up this late. I mean, tomorrow we might have to fight and I wouldn't want you to be tired and not at one hundred percent."

"Fine." She sighed as she took her covers and dropped to the ground with a neglected thud. Kakashi waited until her breathing evened out. _I could make her feel not neglected,_ he thought. _I can think of a thousand ways not to make her feel neglected._

_"Kakashi sensei, I need help. Help me get this off," Sakura said as she pulled her shirt over her head. She wasn't having any difficulty though. Kakashi reached out and yanked off the shirt hastily, eying the pale pink bra that revealed itself. A bow covered the clasp, and Kakashi moved to unhook it, using namely his teeth. Her small breast came into view and Kakashi smirked._

Sakura turned over and Kakashi snapped out of his sick fantasy, _Maybe I should?_ he said to himself, _Then again, it would be against everything I stand for and it would be more than disturbing because she was my student. _He murmured something incoherently, even to his own ears. Maybe the sky would hold the answers.

Before that answer came, however, his acute ears picked up a rustling sound from afar, and it was no squirrel. Kakashi looked out of the corner of his eye._ Maybe it was just…No, I can't fool myself, _he thought. He tapped Genma roughly on the shoulder and stood. Genma rolled over to see Kakashi's face, his finger to his covered lips. Genma nodded and booted Naruto and Sakura roughly with his foot.

"What is it?" Naruto whispered groggily.

"An attack," Kakashi answered. "And an obvious one."

Everyone was standing at this point, but suddenly beside Kakashi, Sakura stiffened in an unnatural way. Her eyes were wide with terror. Her breath came in short gasps. Narrowing his eyes, Kakashi looked to the trees, where Itachi was standing in the shadow of a trunk.

"Is she okay?" Genma asked. He had never before witnessed Itachi's genjutsu and it confused him. Kakashi prepared himself to push his chakra into his frozen teammate if need be, but before he knew it, Itachi was throwing kunai.

Kakashi sucked in a breath when one of those ninja daggers sliced open his side. Itachi followed in their wake, and while the copy-ninja clutched at his wound, the Uchiha grabbed him by the throat and gave a well-place shove. The tree Kakashi landed against cracked under the force of the blow and Kakashi crumpled to the ground, winded and unable to move. Lights flashed before his eyes, and what he could see was blurred by pain. But he could see enough.

It took a moment for everyone to register what happened, then Genma yelled, "Bastard!" But Itachi was on him too, and with the flick of the wrist, Genma was on the ground, holding his abdomen. Blood leaked from between his fingers.

"Sakura, look out!" Kakashi gasped, and clutched tighter at his side. Itachi was going for Sakura. When had he become so fast?

Naruto appeared in front of Sakura then. Itachi's kunai buried itself deep in the blonde's chest, eliciting a broken shout. Naruto's fingers slipped on the double-edged blade as he desperately tried to pull the kunai out, and his teeth gritted with the pain. Then his expression drew slack, and he crumpled.

Sakura woke then, but Itachi was leaving. He had killed his Jinchuuriki. Fighting was no longer a necessity.  
…  
Kakashi sat up, gasping for breath. He clutched at his side and flopped back down on the bed, thinking, _Was that all a dream or was it reality?_ He looked around in the darkness and saw the blank white walls of the hospital room. He smelled the alcohol and obsessive cleanliness. His eyes withheld their tears, because it was beyond his capability to cry anymore. Sadness clawed at his insides nonetheless. Naruto was gone and there was nothing he could do.

_How long was I out? _he asked himself, and his distress grew._ Is Sakura okay? Did she make it out? I can't remember…_ Kakashi looked at the ceiling. He didn't know the time or even the date, but he did know that he needed to get out of there.

Gathering what was currently in his will, he pushed himself up and slipped out the window, careful not to cause himself any accidental harm.

He went to the memorial with a heavy heart. It was a groggy morning, probably a little after dawn. It was drizzling and the weather matched his mood. Kakashi knelt down and traced his fingers over the newly inscribed name._ Uzumaki Naruto, why couldn't you just…No, she would be taken then. I guess it was best for you to sacrifice yourself to save the one we both loved._

The confession that he loved Sakura surprised him, but yes, he supposed he did love her. As a daughter? Hell no, he was only fourteen years her senior. Maybe as a sister, or maybe, like Genma had often whispered in his ears at night, she was something more.

Shaking his head, Kakashi settled down and soon fell asleep at the foot of the large stone. He wanted to be comforted by the presence of those he loved. His teachers, his friends, his students... His hands sprawled out in front of him, awkwardly placed next to a small puddle. He dreamt such wonderful things then, such wonderfully disturbing and maybe erotic things.

_  
"Kakashi Sensei," Sakura moaned as her fingers traced her stomach, making a V: starting at her belly button, she only stopped when her hardened soft pink flesh came into her thumb and index finger. "Rape me." She whispered to him._

"Wake up, sensei." He heard her voice.

_Is it real, or am I still dreaming?_ She shook his shoulder and only then did he open his eyes. Why had he dreamt of her? That wasn't love he was dreaming of, it was lust. Lust was not healthy.

He saw Sakura kneeling beside him. Her face was that of an angel, with a soft smile that matched. He quickly scanned the area. So, that was real too? Once again he found himself not knowing the date or time.

"Sakura?" he asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes and attempting to sit up. He gripped his side, remembering once again the wound he had received. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," she said, laughing a bit. "Itachi almost..." She either stopped or he didn't hear her. All he heard was "Itachi." Kakashi's look slipped from morose to a smoldering gaze,

"That bastard, he almost killed me," His gaze drifted from her to the sky, blankly he said, "But he got Naruto." He looked back down to Sakura, "I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do."

Sakura met his gaze and then looked down, ashamed, "I-I couldn't either, "I hate his genjutsu. But that's besides the point. We need to get you back to the hospital!"

Both Kakashi and Sakura knew that Naruto was the point exactly. They both couldn't save him. Sakura suddenly broke down in tears and burried her head in his shoulder. She wrapped her arms aound his neck and continued to cry.

Kakashi was baffled by this and mistook this for an invitation. He lifted he chin and licked her tears gently, testing her first. When she didn't respond he kissed her and she instantly replied by pushing him away from her.

"Come on." She said blankly. Kakshi slipped back to his dejected gaze, "We have to get back." She said as if nothing happened nd clearly in her mind nothing did.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura knew the reason Kakashi was sleeping near a puddle beside the monument, but she couldn't bring herself to think about it. After all, who would want to? Naruto was dead, and it was her fault.

Without even meaning to, her mind hurdled down that insane path, back to where the blonde ninja jumped in front of the pink-haired kunoichi to protect her from Itachi's blow. She distinctly heard his gasp of pain as the long blade stabbed through his chest. She saw his teeth gritting in agony and his hands desperately trying to pull the blade out, cutting themselves on the sharp edge.

She had been frozen with genjutsu, and when she woke from it, Naruto was already in front of her, and the blade was just about to pierce him.

She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow at the memory, leaning heavily against the monument as she stared down at her silver-haired charge.

He was sleeping almost peacefully, except for his murmured speech, which Sakura tried to gather.

"My fault... dammit, why not me...? Obito, don't go... don't protect me..."

The death of someone so special was enough to break the soul, not just the heart, but Sakura wondered who Obito was, and why Kakashi thought Naruto's death was on his hands. Really, it was on hers.

Worrying her lip, she lowered herself to his level and reached out a tentative hand. She placed it on his shoulder and shook it gently.

"Wake up, sensei," she whispered.

He stirred underneath her touch and opened his eye blearily to look at her. "Sakura?" he asked, attempting to sit up. He sucked in a harsh breath and clutched at his side, the area he had been wounded. He gripped it so tightly Sakura wondered if it might open up again, so she did the honors of repositioning the Copy-Ninja more comfortably against the memorial. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," she said, relieved that he was relatively okay. "Itachi almost..." She stopped herself and Kakashi's sad look became angry.

"He almost killed me, and he killed Naruto," he finished, turning away. "Damn him. I couldn't stop him."

"I couldn't either," Sakura said shakily. "I hate his genjutsu. But, that's not the point. You need to come back to the hospital!"

In actuality and in all seriousness, Naruto's death was the point. The fact that she couldn't stop Itachi was the point. It was the reason Kakashi was wounded and the reason she had nearly drank herself to death those first nights home. Her shoulders shook. Her eyes hurt with held back tears. Kakashi was looking at her with worry, and suddenly she couldn't take it any more.

With a choked off sob, she pushed her forehead into his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her hold was so tight that it was a wonder she didn't break his spine by accident, and she was sure she was getting snot and tears all over his vest.

He did nothing to stop the flood, nothing at all. He was suffering himself, from both physical and emotional pain, but he did not shed a single tear. Sakura was aware of that much and suddenly hated him for his strength.

The sensations running through her next were odd ones. She was still crying, but her cheeks felt moist with something other than tears. Kakashi was holding her, she could feel his skin on hers, but she wondered when exactly he had pulled up her face so he could look her in the eye, and she seriously began to doubt her sanity when she felt his lips on hers. When had he pulled down his mask? Everything was a blur to her through her tears, but they were being kissed away.

She didn't think Kakashi was capable of something like that, and her mind was having trouble processing it. Then Sakura did something she would later regret: she pushed him away.

"Come on," she said to a dumbfounded—and, if one was looking for it, disappointed—Kakashi, "we have to get back. Now." Her voice was tight, because if he tried something again, she would shove him up against that memorial and beat him in the side that hurt. She was too shaken right now to deal with anything other than herself. She didn't want to deal with him either.


End file.
